Skip to main content

Macroeconomics: real vs nominal gross domestic product

Nominal GDP: 
  • A nominal GDP measures the value of a nation's output produced in a year, given the prices charged for that year. However, if prices increase while the output level stays constant in a given year, the nominal GDP will drastically increase, even though the level of production is equal to that of the previous year.

Estimating real GDP:
  • To determine the actual change in output from one year to the next, we must adjust the nominal value of a country's output in a year based on changes in the average price level during that year. 
  • Inflation is when the price level increases, whereas deflation is when the price level is decreasing.
  • To determine whether the nominal GDP overestimates or underestimates the output of a country, one must know whether the average price level has increased or decreased. In order to achieve this task can use a price index known as the GDP deflator.
  • The GDP deflator:
  • Real GDP is calculated by replacing the prices for that current year with those of the base year. Another popular index is the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The main difference with our previous formula, it is that this takes into account goods (and not services) both domestic and foreign (i.e imports).
  • CPI example:
  • To find either inflation or deflation using the GDP deflator, simply calculate the percentage change between the index numbers at time i and i-1 . If the number is positive, this indicates inflation. If the number is negative this indicates deflation.
Reference: Welker, Jason. AP Maroeconomics Crash Course. Research & Education Association (2014). p 70-74.

Labels

Labels:
Location: New York, NY, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Macroeconomics: multiplier and crowding out effects

Multiplier effect: whenever   any of the components of AD increases, the increase in GDP will be greater than the initial increase in expenditures. The impact on GDP of a particular increase in spending depends on the proportion of the new income that is taken out of the system to the proportion that continues to circulate in the economy. The multiplier effect tells us the impact a particular change in one the components of AD will have on the total income (GDP).  Let k denote the spending multiplier, which is a function of MPC and MPS. The larger the marginal propensity to consume, the larger the spending multiplier. Notice that the larger the MPC, the greater the impact a particular change in the spending variables will have on the nation's GDP. The crowding out effect: If government spending increases without an increase in taxes, the government must borrow funds from the private sector to finance its deficit, thereby increasing the interest rate. This increase in interest ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Exercise: short and long run effects of a fiscal policy

  You are in charge of the government budget for the year 2021. You are told that schools and public roads need to be updated, and you estimate an appropriate budget in order to carry out the task. Describe what will happen in the short run to the economy, and what type of inflation do we see? Describe the supply side effect from this policy, explain what happens in the long run. Assume that there is no crowding out effect. First, note that updating public infractures, assuming taxes stay the same, will require an increase in government spending, which will also have an impact on the investment and consumption level in the economy (remember the spending multiplier?). Therefore, the aggregate demand curve will shift to the right. This will cause inflation (i.e positive change in the price level) and a higher output in the short-run.  Note that if we were to assume a large crowding out effect, the short run aggregate supply curve would shift to the left (increase in production c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Exercise: maximizing profit

Assume that you are the owner of a small business that produces T-shirts. Your the total revenue for your business can be modeled by the following equation: and your total cost corresponds to this function: Find the point at which your firm maximizes its profit. Then, find how much profit the firm if able to earn at that point. Using the total cost and total revenue functions we can set up the profit function: Then, realize that if you want to find the maximum profit, take the derivative of the function and set it up equal to zero, and solve for Q. This is equivalent of taking the derivative of the total cost and total revenue functions and setting them equal to each other. In this problem, I chose the latter option as it was explained in the previous lessons. Notice that profit is often denoted by a capital pi.  We are assuming that the TR>TC for some positive value, you can check for yourself. However, if we did not know that, we would first take the first ...
Post a Comment
Read more